ecktronic said:
Can you enlighten me a little on what you mean by micing directly on the cone? Where else would you palce the mic? By cone do you mean the speaker, or the bit in the middle of the speaker?
The "cone" of a speaker is the cone-shaped, larger, outer part of the loudspeaker. The central, dome-shapd part of the loudspeaker is called the "dustcap" (or sometimes just the "cap" or "dome") The ring where the two meet is called the "voice coil gap".
There is often a misnomer floating around where people call the central dustcap dome the "cone". This is technically not correct wording, and can cause some confusion. I, for example am confused as to whether MasteringHouse was referring to the dustcap dome or the cone. By his description of the shrill sounds (which I agree with entirely, BTW), it sounds like he may actually be referring to the dome and not the actual cone itself. I'll ask him to correct me if I'm wrong there. (wouldn't be the first time
).
One can mic the louspeaker anywhere they like on these loudspeakers, depending on their taste and the requirements of the song. Also placement of the mic pointing directly in at the speaker (on-axis) or at an angle (off-ais) makes a big difference too.
As always, there are exceptions, but
in general here's how it breaks down. These each are assuming on-axis mic placement:
- Miking on the dome tends to accentuate the higher freqs and higher freq distortions.
- Miking on the voice coil tends to result in the lowest speaker-induced distortion and in that way gives the closest analog to the sound that is coming from the amplifier itself.
- Miking on the cone tends to accuentate the warmer, lower frequencies and produce lower amplitude and/or smoother transients, but it also tends to accentuate distortions caused by distortions in the surface of the cone itself that come when the voice coil tried pushing the cone faster than the physical material of the cone can respond (distortion by inertia.) The further from the center of the cone you get, the "warmer" the response but the greater the interial distortion.
The distortions (or lack thereof) mentioned above are not necessarily bad, sometimes such distortions are what give that cabinet it's particular sound, which might be desireable. Sometimes though they can be unwnted. The choice is up to the engineer as to what sounds best.
Moving mic orientation from on-axis to off-axis, like Chesrock and many others prefer, takes advantage of the off-axis response of the microphone and uses that to create a more favorable coloring of the sound. It can also, in some close-miked cardioids, reduce low frequency emphasis caused by "the proximity effect" present in most cardioid micrphones.
It takes a lot of expirimentation with different mics, placements and cabinets to determine wht you might like best for any given configuration. There is no one right answer that covers all situations. Many of us tend to gravitate towards favorite or familiar techniques. Mine happens to be almost identical to Chessrock's; I tend to like pointing in towards the voice coil with an SM57 at about 30-40 degress off axis at a distance of just a couple of inches myself. But this can easily change based upon cabinet type, song style and even the musician's playing style and effects pedals he like to use. Others may prefer other methods, and that's OK too. If we all sounded the same way, all music would sound the same. And if the Boy Bands taught us anything, they taught us that's not a good thing.
G.
. Thank you very much, any other input anyone has would be great.